rticipate in Jewish deportation or to turn over Jews to the Nazis. As a result there was a mass killing of Jews by the Nazis which caused the fall of the Judenrat council. Throughout Nazi rule, the Jews where the central target. Though Jews were not the only target of the Nazis, other groups targeted were: political opponents, socialists, liberals, trade unionists, dissident clergy, those who didn’t fit in with the racial theories, mentally retarded, physically handicapped, emotionally disturbed Germans, Gypsies, and also Jehovah Witnesses. When the German Army captured Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, a number of German buildings were destroyed by the Soviet Secret Police. The Germans sought retaliation and the Jews of Kiev were targeted. An outdoor office was set up at the ravine Babi Yar, where the Jews waited to be “registered”. The Jews were stripped of their clothes and valuables and were marched naked to the ravine. There they were shot. The killing continued for three days and three nights. Between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement there were 33,771 Jews dead, lying in the Ravine of Babi Yar. In the months to come the site at Babi Yar remained a site where executions of Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war took place. At the time when the Red army was advancing. The mass graves at Babi Yar were dug up and the bodies destroyed. For more than a month the men worked to dispose of the bodies, and the flames could be seen from Kiev. The Jews then took a call to arms. They fought against the Nazi troops that were taking them in for deportation purposes. Those in concentration camps fought back as well. The Jews fought against impossible odds. Though they were confined to the ghettos they were still vulnerable. The arms acquired by the Jews were difficult and dangerous to get, and no assistance was obtained by the allies or by the Polish underground resistance. The Jews attacked the Nazis w...
